LEAP42.1, Leap42.3 - Wifi network unassociated (but iwlist scan works)

NickFi · February 2, 2018, 10:12am

After upgrading from OpenSuse 41.2 to v42.3, I encountered some problems and the latest of them is the loss of wireless communication. The computer is only connected via this wifi dongle.
I had it running, until I performed the latest updates. After updates, the Wifi didn’t work and I could not configure it. I used to configure it through Yast Network Settings (Wicked Service).

I use a USB wifi dongle, RTL8191SU (the name recognised by OpenSuse is the same as in Windows).
Now I downgraded to OpenSuse 42.1 and I am still not able to use the network. The results presented below are the same for OpenSuse 42.3.

iwlist scan can identify the ESSID of my network
lsusb shows:
Bus003 Device 004: ID 0bda:8172 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8191SU 802.11n WLAN Adapter
dmesg | less shows:
New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=8172
New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Product: RTL8191S WLAN Adapter
Manufacturer: Realtek
SerialNumber: 00e04c000001
iwconfig:
wlan0 - unassociated Nickname: “rtl_wifi”
Mode: Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Sensitivity: 0/0
Retry: off RTS thr: off Fragment thr: off
Encryption key: off
Power Management: off
Link Quality: 0 Signal Level: 0 Noise Level: 0
Rx invalid nwid: 0 Rx invalid crypt: 0 Rx invalid frag: 0
Tx excessive retries: 0 Invalid misc: 0 Missed beacon: 0
iwlist scan
wlan0 Scan completed:
… Cell 08 Address: E8:DE:27:89:0d:88 (I changed some values)
ESSID: MyNetwork
Protocol: 802.11bgn
Mode: Master
Frequency: 2.462 GHz (channel 11)
Encryption key: on
Bit rates: many
Extra: wpa_ie=dd1a00…
IE: WPA Version 1
Group Cipher: TKIP
Extra: rsn_ie=30180…
IE: WPA Version 1
…
Signal Level: 76/100

Under Hardware Information, it shows Kernel Driver: 8712u

I am able to ping the static IP I assigned to the Wifi dongle (192.168.1.12) but I can’t ping the router and DNS (192.168.1.1). It gives error Destination Host Unreachable

I’ve seen many people indicating their wlan0 is unassociated, and I suspect the problem is related to this. I tried all kind of command line commands, such as “ifconfig wlan0 up”, “iwconfig wlan0 txpower auto”, etc

deano_ferrari · February 2, 2018, 10:38am

Do you have the kernel-firmware package installed?
Any firmware errors?

dmesg|egrep "r8712u|firmware"

Assuming that the above checks out, move on to the following…
3. You’re definitely using wicked to manage your wireless network connection?

sudo systemctl status network

Open a terminal and monitor the journal with

sudo journalctl -f

then in another terminal do (as root)

ifdown wlan0;ifup wlan0

That should help track down any connection-related issues.

NickFi · February 2, 2018, 11:33am

deano_ferrari:

Do you have the kernel-firmware package installed?

Any firmware errors?
dmesg|egrep "r8712u|firmware"
usb 3-4: r8712u: Loading firmware from "/rtlwifi/rtl8712u.bin"
usb 1-1.2: r8712u: Loading firmware from "/rtlwifi/rtl8712u.bin" (this line appeared after I moved the dongle to another usb port)
Assuming that the above checks out, move on to the following…
3. You’re definitely using wicked to manage your wireless network connection?
sudo systemctl status network
wicked.service - wicked managed network interfaces
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/wicked.service; enabled)
Active: active (exited) since Fri 2018-02-02; 10 min ago
Process: 4408 ExecReload=/usb/sbin/wicked --systemd ifreload all (code=exited, status=0, success)
Main PID: 971 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
wlan0   up
Open a terminal and monitor the journal with
sudo journalctl -f
then in another terminal do (as root)
ifdown wlan0;ifup wlan0
That should help track down any connection-related issues.

I get:


ifdown wlan0;ifup wlan0
wlan0 device-ready
wlan0 up

In second terminal, I can see one type of warnings. All the other messages are just info. Because I am typing the messages from keyboard on another computer, I won’t display all of them.


NetworkManager: <warn> Connection disconnected (reason -14)

deano_ferrari · February 2, 2018, 8:57pm

In second terminal, I can see one type of warnings. All the other messages are just info. Because I am typing the messages from keyboard on another computer, I won’t display all of them.

NetworkManager: Connection disconnected (reason -14)

Your using NetworkManager concurrently with wicked? That can cause issues. Check with

systemctl status NetworkManager

If necessary, stop it and disable it

sudo systemctl stop NetworkManager

sudo systemctl disable NetworkManager

then try connecting with wicked again.

NickFi · February 3, 2018, 1:50am

deano_ferrari:

Your using NetworkManager concurrently with wicked? That can cause issues. Check with
systemctl status NetworkManager
If necessary, stop it and disable it
sudo systemctl stop NetworkManager
sudo systemctl disable NetworkManager
then try connecting with wicked again.

Thanks. At some stage I wanted to try using NetworkManager and I probably had both wicked and NetworkManager running at the same time.
I stopped and disabled NetworkManager.
Now, I get:


systemctl status NetworkManager
NetworkManager,service - Network Manager
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/NetworkManager, service; disabled)
Active: inactive (dead)

systemctl status wicked
wicked, service - wicked managed network interface
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/wicked.service; enabled)
Active: active (Exited)
Process: 966 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/wicked --systemd ifup all (code=exited, status=0,SUCCESS)
Main PID: 966 (code: exited, status=0;SUCCESS)
CGroup: /system/slice/wicked.service
wicked[966]: lo   up
wicked[966]: wlan0    up

iwconfig
em1  - no wireless extensions
lo - no wireless extentions
wlan0 - unassociated Nickname: "rtl_wifi"
Mode: managed Access Point: Not-Associated  Sensitivity:0/0

When I ping the IP assigned to wlan0, it responds. But for the gateway, it reports network unreachable.
I moved the computer to another room, where I have the router and I configured the ethernet board. I am running the updates now, hopefully after this step, I will be able to get the wireless running.

deano_ferrari · February 3, 2018, 2:16am

Good. FWIW, I prefer NM as I’m using a laptop that moves between lots of different network environments, so I have several network connection profiles to choose from.

When I ping the IP assigned to wlan0, it responds.

That’s irrelevant as you’ve assigned a static IP address to this network interface, so you’ll be able to ping it regardless of the wifi connection status.

I moved the computer to another room, where I have the router and I configured the ethernet board. I am running the updates now, hopefully after this step, I will be able to get the wireless running.

Not sure about that, but report back when you’re done.

deano_ferrari · February 3, 2018, 2:19am

Since you’re using wicked, you should have a network config file ifcfg-wlan0 present. Can you please share that with us?

cat /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-wlan0

deano_ferrari · February 3, 2018, 2:23am

Also, can you scan for wireless networks ok? Either of the following commands should work:

sudo iwlist wlan0 scanning

sudo iw dev wlan0 scan

Fraser_Bell · February 3, 2018, 3:13am

Just a suggestion, because to me it sounds like a router configuration issue:

Check and doublecheck your router settings. Make sure access to its DNS actually IS set to 192.168.1.1

Check very carefully for config typos.

If it is, also check that 192.168.1.12 is in the assigned DNS range, and is included in the Wireless DNS range.

And …

Try with and without Wireless Encryption.

Since you can see it with a iwlist scan, you can probably assume your dongle is working properly.

And, if you have additional devices connecting to your router, make sure one of them has not grabbed the …12 address already.

deano_ferrari · February 3, 2018, 3:35am

The OP has been quite clear that they cannot associate with the AP, and the output shared so far confirms that.

Since you can see it with a iwlist scan, you can probably assume your dongle is working properly.

No, it is not associated.

NickFi · February 3, 2018, 4:42am

Thanks for ideas. I’ve been working to fix this issue since last week. I’ve redone all the settings from scratch, with upgrades and installations of the OS many times. The fact I can post this message from the cabled connection means the DNS is working fine. I am not even able to ping my router from the wireless connection, and the DNS has nothing to do with that.
The USB Wireless dongle is not defective, because I can use it when I boot the computer in Windows.
My router is configured to use encryption, all other computers work fine with this setting, even OpenSuse worked fine for years with the same settings, so there is no need to change to unencrypted.
Because I can see iwlist, I know the hardware works fine (I have another USB dongle, different model, which I tried, hoping it will use a different driver, but it looks like Linux is not automatically recognizing the new device, I could not see any difference and still could not connect).

The IP address ending with 12 is one of the tens of different random IP Addresses I allocated. I only have two other computers running, so the chance of collision is very small anyway and if those computers stop working I will know the IP is chosen incorrectly.

I’ve completed the OpenSuse 42.1 updates, the system is up-to-date now, it just still does the same as before with wireless.

NickFi · February 3, 2018, 4:44am

Yes, I expect that in the moment I will be able to solve the “unassociated” issue, it should work fine. So far, I don’t know how to deal with it.

deano_ferrari · February 3, 2018, 4:50am

Please run the commands in posts #7 and #8. If possible, use wired internet to gain internet connectivity and post the output. (Enclose within code tags, refer to the ‘#’ button in the forum editor.) Alternatively, copy/paste the output to a text file, transfer to a memory stick and post via an internet-connected machine.

NickFi · February 3, 2018, 5:10am

I am reading from forums, and there is a mention of the file wpa_supplicant.conf.
I found two such files on my system. One is located in folder /wpa/wpa_supplicant and this is what it contains:


linux-21ul:/etc/wpa_supplicant # cat wpa_supplicant.conf
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=wheel

The second one is located in /etc/dbus-1/system.d and I don’t think it contains something of interest, but here it is anyway:


<!DOCTYPE busconfig PUBLIC
 "-//freedesktop//DTD D-BUS Bus Configuration 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/dbus/1.0/busconfig.dtd">
<busconfig>
        <policy user="root">
                <allow own="fi.epitest.hostap.WPASupplicant"/>

                <allow send_destination="fi.epitest.hostap.WPASupplicant"/>
                <allow send_interface="fi.epitest.hostap.WPASupplicant"/>

                <allow own="fi.w1.wpa_supplicant1"/>

                <allow send_destination="fi.w1.wpa_supplicant1"/>
                <allow send_interface="fi.w1.wpa_supplicant1"/>
                <allow receive_sender="fi.w1.wpa_supplicant1" receive_type="signal"/>
        </policy>
        <policy context="default">
                <deny own="fi.epitest.hostap.WPASupplicant"/>
                <deny send_destination="fi.epitest.hostap.WPASupplicant"/>
                <deny send_interface="fi.epitest.hostap.WPASupplicant"/>

                <deny own="fi.w1.wpa_supplicant1"/>
                <deny send_destination="fi.w1.wpa_supplicant1"/>
                <deny send_interface="fi.w1.wpa_supplicant1"/>
                <deny receive_sender="fi.w1.wpa_supplicant1" receive_type="signal"/>
        </policy>
</busconfig>

My wpa_supplicant.service file:


[Unit]
Description=WPA Supplicant daemon
Before=network.target

[Service]
Type=dbus
BusName=fi.w1.wpa_supplicant1
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -u -f /var/log/wpa_supplicant.log

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

I had a look in the wpa_supplicant.log file and this is what it shows up. The file is large, so I reduced the text to the last lines


Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
wlan0: Trying to associate with e8:de:27:89:0d:87 (SSID='T24' freq=2462 MHz)
wlan0: Association request to the driver failed
wlan0: Associated with e8:de:27:89:0d:87
wlan0: WPA: Key negotiation completed with e8:de:27:89:0d:87 [PTK=CCMP GTK=TKIP]
wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to e8:de:27:89:0d:87 completed [id=0 id_str=]
wlan0: Michael MIC failure detected
wlan0: WPA: Sending EAPOL-Key Request (error=1 pairwise=0 ptk_set=1 len=99)
wlan0: WPA: Key negotiation completed with e8:de:27:89:0d:87 [PTK=CCMP GTK=TKIP]
wlan0: Michael MIC failure detected
wlan0: WPA: Sending EAPOL-Key Request (error=1 pairwise=0 ptk_set=1 len=99)
wlan0: TKIP countermeasures started
wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=e8:de:27:89:0d:87 reason=14 locally_generated=1
wlan0: WPA: TKIP countermeasures stopped
wlan0: Trying to associate with e8:de:27:89:0d:87 (SSID='T24' freq=2462 MHz)
wlan0: Association request to the driver failed
wlan0: Associated with e8:de:27:89:0d:87
wlan0: WPA: Key negotiation completed with e8:de:27:89:0d:87 [PTK=CCMP GTK=TKIP]
wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to e8:de:27:89:0d:87 completed [id=0 id_str=]
wlan0: Michael MIC failure detected
wlan0: WPA: Sending EAPOL-Key Request (error=1 pairwise=0 ptk_set=1 len=99)
wlan0: WPA: Key negotiation completed with e8:de:27:89:0d:87 [PTK=CCMP GTK=TKIP]
wlan0: Michael MIC failure detected
wlan0: WPA: Sending EAPOL-Key Request (error=1 pairwise=0 ptk_set=1 len=99)
wlan0: TKIP countermeasures started
wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=e8:de:27:89:0d:87 reason=14 locally_generated=1
wlan0: WPA: TKIP countermeasures stopped
wlan0: Trying to associate with e8:de:27:89:0d:87 (SSID='T24' freq=2462 MHz)
wlan0: Association request to the driver failed
wlan0: Associated with e8:de:27:89:0d:87
wlan0: WPA: Key negotiation completed with e8:de:27:89:0d:87 [PTK=CCMP GTK=TKIP]
wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to e8:de:27:89:0d:87 completed [id=0 id_str=]
wlan0: Michael MIC failure detected
wlan0: WPA: Sending EAPOL-Key Request (error=1 pairwise=0 ptk_set=1 len=99)
wlan0: WPA: Key negotiation completed with e8:de:27:89:0d:87 [PTK=CCMP GTK=TKIP]
wlan0: Michael MIC failure detected
wlan0: WPA: Sending EAPOL-Key Request (error=1 pairwise=0 ptk_set=1 len=99)
wlan0: TKIP countermeasures started
wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=e8:de:27:89:0d:87 reason=14 locally_generated=1
wlan0: WPA: TKIP countermeasures stopped
wlan0: No network configuration found for the current AP
wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=e8:de:27:89:0d:87 reason=3 locally_generated=1

deano_ferrari · February 3, 2018, 5:33am

Can you please supply your wireless configuration as requested?

NickFi · February 3, 2018, 5:48am

I am sorry, I missed those posts. Here there are:


linux-21ul:~ # cat /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-wlan0
BOOTPROTO='static'
BROADCAST=''
ETHTOOL_OPTIONS=''
IPADDR='192.168.1.32/24'
MTU='1500'
NAME='RTL8191SU 802.11n WLAN Adapter'
NETWORK=''
REMOTE_IPADDR=''
STARTMODE='hotplug'
WIRELESS_AP=''
WIRELESS_AP_SCANMODE='1'
WIRELESS_AUTH_MODE='psk'
WIRELESS_BITRATE='auto'
WIRELESS_CA_CERT=''
WIRELESS_CHANNEL=''
WIRELESS_CLIENT_CERT=''
WIRELESS_CLIENT_KEY=''
WIRELESS_CLIENT_KEY_PASSWORD=''
WIRELESS_DEFAULT_KEY='0'
WIRELESS_EAP_AUTH=''
WIRELESS_EAP_MODE=''
WIRELESS_ESSID='T24'
WIRELESS_FREQUENCY=''
WIRELESS_KEY=''
WIRELESS_KEY_0=''
WIRELESS_KEY_1=''
WIRELESS_KEY_2=''
WIRELESS_KEY_3=''
WIRELESS_KEY_LENGTH='128'
WIRELESS_MODE='Managed'
WIRELESS_NICK=''
WIRELESS_NWID=''
WIRELESS_PEAP_VERSION=''
WIRELESS_POWER='no'
WIRELESS_WPA_ANONID=''
WIRELESS_WPA_IDENTITY=''
WIRELESS_WPA_PASSWORD=''
WIRELESS_WPA_PSK='123459'

My Cell is T24 (Number 12)


linux-21ul:~ # iwlist wlan0 scanning                 
wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: C6:EA:1D:AC:F3:82
                    ESSID:"Fon WiFi"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bgn
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Signal level=26/100  
          Cell 02 - Address: E2:B9:E5:AC:36:68
                    ESSID:"Fon WiFi"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bgn
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.422 GHz (Channel 3)
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Signal level=63/100  
          Cell 03 - Address: B0:E5:ED:5B:75:48
                    ESSID:"DODO-7542"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bgn
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.457 GHz (Channel 10)
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Extra:wpa_ie=dd160050f20101000050f20401000050f20401000050f202
                    IE: WPA Version 1
                        Group Cipher : CCMP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    Extra:rsn_ie=30140100000fac040100000fac040100000fac020c00
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : CCMP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    Signal level=42/100  
          Cell 04 - Address: C0:25:E9:EF:D9:1B
                    ESSID:"TP-LINK_D91C"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bgn
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Extra:rsn_ie=30140100000fac040100000fac040100000fac020c00
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : CCMP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: DD880050F204104A0001101044000102103B00010310470010D96C7EFC2F8938F1EFBD6E5148BFA8121021000754502D4C494E4B1023000C41726368657220433132303010240006313233343536104200033030311054000800060050F20400011011000C417263686572204331323030100800022008103C0001031049000A00372A00012005022688
                    Signal level=25/100  
          Cell 05 - Address: F8:AB:05:9E:B7:FB
                    ESSID:"Telstra9EB7F5"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bgn
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Extra:rsn_ie=30140100000fac040100000fac040100000fac020c00
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : CCMP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: DD310050F204104A00011010440001021047001059D7AD436649C1A109677D2B7BE14979103C0001031049000600372A000120
                    Signal level=42/100  
          Cell 06 - Address: B8:EE:0E:A3:04:04
                    ESSID:"BelongKH7777KC"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bgn
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Extra:rsn_ie=30140100000fac040100000fac040100000fac020c00
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : CCMP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: DD800050F204104A0001101044000102103B00010310470010BE96E3E4D7403AEC19644713514D02D41021000842726F6164636F6D1023000842726F6164636F6D1024000631323334353610420004313233341054000800060050F20400011011000A42726F6164636F6D415010080002200C103C0001011049000600372A000120
                    Signal level=42/100  
          Cell 07 - Address: E0:B9:E5:AC:36:65
                    ESSID:"TelstraAC3665"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bgn
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.422 GHz (Channel 3)
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Extra:rsn_ie=30140100000fac040100000fac040100000fac020c00
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : CCMP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: DD9D0050F204104A00011010440001021057000101103B000103104700109453A1BC83BD58BF8A03FF3C495CDF7B1021000B546563686E69636F6C6F721023000E546563686E69636F6C6F7220544710240006373939766163104200093136333753415142571054000800060050F204000110110014546563686E69636F6C6F72205447373939766163100800020784103C0001031049000600372A000120
                    Signal level=64/100  
          Cell 08 - Address: E2:B9:E5:AC:36:67
                    ESSID:"Telstra Air"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bgn
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.422 GHz (Channel 3)
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Signal level=60/100  
          Cell 09 - Address: C4:EA:1D:AC:F3:7F
                    ESSID:"TelstraACF37F"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bgn
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Extra:rsn_ie=30140100000fac040100000fac040100000fac020c00
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : CCMP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: DD220050F204104A00011010440001021057000101103C0001031049000600372A000120
                    Signal level=23/100  
          Cell 10 - Address: C6:EA:1D:ED:25:9B
                    ESSID:"Telstra Air"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bgn
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Signal level=10/100  
          Cell 11 - Address: C6:EA:1D:ED:25:9C
                    ESSID:"Fon WiFi"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bgn
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Signal level=23/100  
          Cell 12 - Address: E8:DE:27:89:0D:87
                    ESSID:"T24"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bgn
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Extra:wpa_ie=dd1a0050f20101000050f20202000050f2040050f20201000050f202
                    IE: WPA Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (2) : CCMP TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    Extra:rsn_ie=30180100000fac020200000fac04000fac020100000fac020000
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (2) : CCMP TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: DD3F0050F204104A00011010440001021047001000000000000010000000E8DE27890D10103C000100104900140024E26002000101600000020001600100020001
                    Signal level=100/100

NickFi · February 3, 2018, 6:08am

I made a big progress and the irony is that I am not yet sure what caused it. It could be that I changed the content of the file wpa_supplicant.conf.
Now, when I run the command iwconfig, I get:


linux-21ul:~ # iwconfig
em1       no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"T24"  Nickname:"rtl_wifi"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: E8:DE:27:89:0D:87   
          Bit Rate:150 Mb/s   Sensitivity:0/0  
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:****-****-****-****-****-****-****-****   Security mode:open
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=100/100  Signal level=100/100  Noise level=0/100
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

And for ifconfig:


linux-21ul:~ # ifconfig
em1       Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 90:B1:1C:93:4F:CB  
          inet addr:192.168.1.45  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:17051 errors:0 dropped:5 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:14079 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:13011095 (12.4 Mb)  TX bytes:1792619 (1.7 Mb)
          Interrupt:20 Memory:f7c00000-f7c20000 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:420 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:420 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1 
          RX bytes:52213 (50.9 Kb)  TX bytes:52213 (50.9 Kb)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0B:81:98:5F:A4  
          inet addr:192.168.1.32  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:2377 errors:0 dropped:538 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2251 errors:0 dropped:37 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:623721 (609.1 Kb)  TX bytes:791352 (772.8 Kb)

So, unexpectedly, the wlan0 interface became associated. I am still unable to ping my router, but it is a big progress. I hope to find how it got fixed!

This is the content of the wpa_supplicant.conf file, after I used a sample file to modify it.


ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa-supplicant
ap_scan=1
network={
    ssid="T24"
    scan_ssid=1
    proto=RSN
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
    pairwise=CCMP
    group=TKMP
    psk="My Password in clear"
}

NickFi · February 3, 2018, 6:23am

Victory!

After checking again the content of the wpa_supplicant.conf and comparing the content with the description from iwlist, I found the group was not matching the description, so I edited it. The editor of choice for me is Kate, but I have to start it from Super User Terminal.
This post is sent using the wireless dongle.
Thanks to everybody who contributed, especially to deano_ferrari - you put me on the right track.

Content of /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf file:


ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa-supplicant
ap_scan=1
network={
    ssid="T24"
    scan_ssid=1
    proto=RSN
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
    pairwise=CCMP
    group=TKIP (changed from previous entry, based on the information about group cipher using the command "iwlist wlan0 scanning")
    psk="Password in clear"
}

deano_ferrari · February 3, 2018, 6:46am

Good to read of your success with this. I’ve never needed to change any of the settings in wpa_supplicant.conf, so interesting to me as well.

NickFi · February 3, 2018, 6:55am

I wanted to know what happens if I restore the content of the original /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf file and I put back the original content. It works this way as well.
However, I suspect it may still have had an effect when I first changed it.


ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=wheel

I thought I will look through the terminal commands I issued during my struggle. I could see the list using the command “cat ~/.bash_history”. It is a very long list.
I saved the list to a text file and I will go through it only in case there will be future problems.